Russian lawmakers passed a controversial law banning “propaganda” about not having children on Tuesday in its final third reading, the latest measure Moscow targets that reflects Western liberal views.
Facing an aging population and low birth rates, Moscow is trying to reverse a demographic recession — exacerbated by its military invasion of Ukraine — that threatens its economic future.
Lawmakers in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted unanimously in favor of the draft bill, which would apply to online content, media, advertising and films that promote “rejection of childbearing.”
The bill targets “destructive material” that promotes “conscious” rejection of childbearing.
The authors of the bill have stated that it would not be used as punishment for “individual choice or lifestyle”, but only to promote such a lifestyle, although it is unclear how this would differ in practice. Will go.
Violations will result in fines of up to 400,000 rubles ($4,000) for individuals and up to five million rubles for businesses. The bill also includes a provision to deport foreigners found guilty of disseminating prohibited information.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said before the vote, “This is a deadly law… Without children, there will be no country. People will stop having children because of this ideology.”
He also said that the law is about “protecting citizens, mainly the growing up generation, from information spread in the media sphere that negatively affects personality development”.
“This is so that new generations of our citizens are oriented towards traditional family values,” he said.
Communist Party MP Nina Ostunina, who heads the Duma committee on family policy, said the bill aimed to “protect our youth from unnecessary ideologies”.
The legislation will now be considered by parliament’s upper house on November 20, before going before President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to sign it into law.
This comes on top of existing restrictions on “promotion” of LGBTQ relationships or gender transition.
Adoption ban
The Duma also unanimously passed a law in the third reading banning foreigners living in countries that allow sex change from adopting Russian children.
The bill aims to prevent Russian children from legally changing their gender.
Moscow has long portrayed itself as a bulwark against liberal values, but this trend has intensified since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine, further fraying relations with the West.
The bill would ban adoption by citizens of countries that “authorize gender change by medical intervention, including the use of medication”, or allow individuals to change their gender on official identity documents.
Since 1993, foreigners have adopted 102,403 children from Russia, Volodin said, warning that “Western policy toward children is disastrous.”
Russia previously banned all American adoptions in 2012 with a bill named after a Russian child who died of heat stroke in 2008 after his adoptive American father forgot him in the car.
Russia has created an inhospitable environment for LBGTQ people for years. In July 2023, it banned the “international LGBT movement” as extremist and made gender reassignment illegal.
Putin himself has repeatedly mocked people who have undergone gender reassignment, as well as LGBTQ people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
